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D'. HILLEN ARMOUR, OF' COLUMBIA, TEXAS.

BREAKWA'IER.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 24,271, dated June 7, 1859.

To all whom 'it may concern.'

Be it known that I, D. HILLEN ARMUUR, of Columbia, in the county of Brazoria and State of Texas, have invented a new and 'useful improvement in breakwaters forL the purpose of preserving channels across the bars at the mouths of rivers, creeks, or canals and between bays and gulfs; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specilication, in whichy Figure l is a vertical section of a breakwater constructed according to my invention at the mouth of a river, the plane of section being parallel with the channel. Fig. 2 is a View of the same as seen looking in the direction of the channel. Fig. 3 is a plan of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both figures.

The object of my invention is to protect the channel across a bar from the flow of sand which comes in upon thebar with the tide, and keep the channel open without the necessity of making the channel in the bar narrower than the channel of the river.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention I will proceed to describe it with reference to the drawings.

A, A, represent the bank of the river whose channel is to be protected.

B is the strand of the gulf or sea into which the river discharges itself and C, C, is the bar formed across the mouth of the river.

D, D, are two rows of upright piles driven into the bar at angles of 450 or thereabout to the strand B, and meeting where the center of the channel is desired to be, and FLE, are two other rows driven parallel or nearly so with D, D, commencing at the river banks and terminating at a distance apart equal to the desired widt-h of channel in the bar. The heads of the piles E, E, project above high water mark, and so do the heads of all of D, D, except a certain number of each row shown dotted, in Fig. 3 and also shown in the center of Fig. 2, whose heads only project to such a height as to leave above them the depth of water required in the channel such number being sufficient to leave the required width. The bar C, C, has excavated through it a channel a, a of the desired width and depth and at the bottom of this excavation is laid a floor F, F which item the sand plate which extends between the two rows of piles'E E a short distance up or toward the river and between the more elevated ones of the two rows D, D, and beyond these latter some distance on into the gulf or sea, where, supported by the sunk piles D, D, itis elevated some distance, as shown in Fig. l, above the bottom of the gulf or sea and above the low of sand coming in toward the bar with the tide. The space between the two rows of piles D, D, and those E, E, on either side of the channel a, a should be filled in with stone or some suitable material.

. The effect of a breakwater of this construction is as follows: The sand washed up toward the bar by the tide as it comes in, cannot flow abovethe sand plate F, F, but is carried under the projecting and overcharging outer end of the said plate and striking t-he walls formed by the outer row of piles D, D, is deliected away from the mouth of the river toward the strand B. ln case of a heavy wind causing the sand to be deposited against one of the faces of the diagonal wall formed by the piles, when the deposit reaches as high as the sand plate it will wash across the sand plate to the other face of the wall but cannot pass into the channel cz, a. The sand plate also presents a smooth even surface along which any deposit collected in the river may pass out into the gulf or sea. The desired object is not accomplished in this breakwater as it is in many others by having a contracted channel through which the stream of the river and the receding tide may wash out the sand, and there is nothing gained by making a narrow channel, and as, when the channel is not contracted, there is not so much lateral. pressure against its sides, the structure of the breakwater does not require to be so strong.

The invention is to be applied in the same manner to bars formed between bays and gulfs, as to bars formed at the mouths of rivers the diagonal wall always putting out into the gulf and the sand plate overhanging it in the same manner.

Vhat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is The projecting or overhanging sand plate F, applied in combination with the diagonal walls of the breakwater substantially as and for the purpose herein specified.

D. HILLEN ARMCUR.

Vitnesses:

H.r F. HANsoN, E. B. CALDWELL. 

